Feeling lost among Web 2.0 conversations?

Here’s a link to a video that explains it all…

• Some explanation of terms:

• Microformats: From Wikipedia:

Microformat logoA microformat (sometimes abbreviated μF or uF) is a piece of mark up that allows expression of semantics in an HTML (or XHTML) web page. Programs can extract meaning from a web page that is marked up with one or more microformats.

Existing (X)HTML standards allow for semantics to be embedded and encoded within them. This is done using specific HTML attributes:

• class
• rel
• rev

Adding microformats to a regular HTML web page allows machines to process HTML text and to possibly load data into remote databases. This would allow programs such as web crawlers to find items such as contact information, events, and reviews on web pages.

Version 3 of the Firefox browser as well as version 8 of Internet Explorer^[1] are expected to include native support for microformats^[2]

Example

For example, consider the contact information:

Joe Doe
The Example Company
604-555-1234  http://example.com/

With hCard microformat markup, that becomes:

<  div class="vcard">
< div class="fn" >  Joe Doe < /div>
< div class="org" > The Example Company < /div >
< div class="tel" > 604-555-1234< /div>
< a class="url"  xhref="http://example.com/" mce_href="http://example.com/">
http://example.com/< /a>
< /div>
Here the formal name (fn), organisation (org), telephone number (tel) and url
have been identified using specific class names; and the whole thing is wrapped in class="vcard",
(see vCard) which indicate that the other classes form a vcard, and are
not just coincidentally named. Other, optional, hCard classes also exist.
It is now possible for software, for example browser plug-ins, to extract the information,
and transfer it to other applications, such as an address book.